GIANLUCA PETRELLA COSMIC RENAISSANCE (Italy)

Gianluca Petrella – trombone, synth, sounds 

Mirco Rubegni – trumpet

Riccardo Di Vinci – electric bass, double bass

Simone Padovani – percussion

Federico Scettri – drums, samplers

Trombonist, composer and producer Gianluca Petrella (Bari, 1975) is one of the most important Italian mid-career artists and, according to many, the best European jazz trombonist today. He achieved an impressive career as a leader and co-leader of various formats (duo, trio, quintet, dectet...), recording twenty albums under his name and several dozen as a sideman. The list of jazz greats with whom he has collaborated includes Enrico Rava (over two decades), Carla Bley, Lester Bowie, Pat Metheny, Paolo Fresu and Nicola Conte, among others, as well as the Sun Ra Orchestra under Marshall Allen. He also wrote music for film, dance and theater. In 2009, he launched his own record label, Spacebone Records.    

He won numerous outstanding awards: Django D'Or 2001 (one of the most prestigious awards of French jazz critics), Paul Acket Bird Award (by the Dutch North Sea Jazz Festival to the most promising world jazz musician), he was twice consecutively chosen as the greatest talent among trombonists in the survey of the American magazine DownBeat, as well as several times winning Top Jazz (the highest award of the Italian jazz community) in different categories.

Petrella performed three times at the Belgrade Jazz Festival. First, in 2010, he made an extremely impressive impression as a member of the Enrique Rava Quintet in the Kolarac Hall. In 2013, he presented the Soupstar duo with pianist Giovanni Guidi in the Americana Hall, and in 2016, he led the Cosmic Renaissance quintet in the Belgrade Youth Centre Great Hall. The band's new album, Universal Language, was released under the Milanese label Schema Records (2022).